A CHALLENGING PROPOSITION; So many ideas and so little power to bring them to life: The challenge of Michelin's Challenge Bibendum.(News)

Byline: NATALIE NEFF

Many of the vehicles scattered about the courtyard resemble basement science projects more than passenger vehicles, though through a squint you can almost picture a few of the larger ones filled with groceries or bearing baby seats, the trappings of an American suburban lifestyle. When a golf cart whirs by, then another, it's weird to realize that both are competitive entries on test drives and not simply event shuttles, while the multitude of basket-wielding bicycles-and the folks lined up to try them out-feels downright foreign and not at all aimed at the American situation. It's an anachronistic scene when viewed through Western eyes.

The fact is, most of the vehicles are science projects of sorts, entries in a quasi-competition called the Challenge Bibendum, sponsored by Michelin and being held for the ninth time in 10 years, on its second trip to Shanghai. And all of those vehicles-the strange three-wheeled two-seaters, the scooters with their unironic '50s designs, the diesel-fueled buses-are far from anachronisms. They are our future, if not literally or even universally.

The vehicles make up the most visible element of the Challenge Bibendum, but the scope of the event is difficult to encapsulate. So much of it took place inside the main hall of the Shanghai Automobile Exhibition Center, in classroom and auditorium settings, in symposiums and round-table discussions. There, policymakers, industry leaders, scientists and academicians gathered to assess the state of global warming, as well as the increasing mobilization of developing countries and the specific challenges such growth poses.

The director-general of research for the European Commission, Jose Manuel Silva Rodriguez, summarized the purpose of the Challenge Bibendum best in his keynote speech: "The key question, for all of us, is how we can achieve cleaner, safer, more energy-efficient and free-flowing road mobility, all the while maintaining competitiveness and sustainable economic growth.

"The Commission's task is now to turn these objectives into reality. To achieve this, we need the private sector to resolutely engage with us to reach these ambitious goals.''

This sounds easy enough, but some of the many complications in achieving these goals were illustrated in panel discussions and round tables. For his part, Bjorn Stigson, president of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, pinned the majority of the blame for a lack of progress on governments for failing adequately to address issues pertaining to sustainable mobility: "We don't know what the situation is going to be in three years, yet we're investing in technologies that are 30 or 40 years away. It's a crazy situation.''